On our way back from three days of climbing in Lofoten we took a detour and went to the Sotbäcksgrottan cave just north of Hemavan.
Sylvia had never been in what I call a real cave, not just a pile of rocks will holes under it or some tourist cave with paved walkways.

The entrance to Sotbäcksgrottan, reached after a few hours hike from the road.

My shadow in the dramatic entrance, beckoning us to follow.

The entrance is too steep do go down without a rope...

at least when there is this much water.

Getting down without getting soaked does requre some acrobatic skills.

Sylvia getting off the rope after the first steep part.

Then some more acrobatics to avoid getting soaked.

Sylvia down after the first short rappel.

There are several spots in this cave where you need to do a bit of traverse climbing to avoid walking though waste deep water.

Coming up to the 10 meter waterfall that requires rappelling down. Unfortunatly it was far to wet to get any acceptable photos of it with my simple pocket camera, and the thundering sound of the waterfall was so deafening you just wanted to get away from it.

Further down the cave you could finally hear yourself think again! We could also take off our harnesses as there are no more rappels

Sylvia in the final exit squeeze.

Same spot, but with her headlamp off and mine on.

The exit hole. We were glad it was not covered with snow forcing us to reverse back through the entire cave system. It's total length of passages is about 1,7km and making your way through it is not just a simple walk in the park.

Done with the de-rigging. Time to get out of the caving gear and start walking back to the car.